Device for indicating the horse-power of an engine.



w. H. noustzm. DEVICE FOR INUICA'HNG THE HORSE POWER OF AN ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED IAN.30, l9l3.

1,159,769, Patented Nov. 9, I915.

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UNITED STATES ParENT OFFICE.

WALTER H. Hon/swam, or LAKEWOOD, olnIo.

DEVICE ron mmcarme 'rnn nonsn-rownn or AK ENGINE.

' Application filed January 30,1913. Serial No.. -745,031.

To all whom it may concern:

Be itlmown that' I, WALTER H. mm:-

STEIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lakewood, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Devices for Indieating the Horse-Power of an Engine, of

which the following is a specification, the principle of the invention being herein explained and the best mode in which I have contemplated applying that principle, so as to distinguish it from other inventions.

The title given my invention sufficiently explains its general character. For the exemplifying purpose in hand it is shown to involve electricity and associated with a portion of a reciprocating type of steam engine.

Theprimal object of my invention is to efiect an instantaneous result,

A further object is the provision of means whereby a direct, continuous andsimplified.

tabulation of successive results is .made possible.

a combination of parts which will be simple and economical of manufacture.

In so far as I am conversant with this par, ticular art, devices similar n purpose to mine have heretofore without exception necessitated a laborious log sheet computation. Such computationswere based on the read ings from charts of various comparative scales which were adapted to receive the recordation of curves. Such charts were moreover frequently upon distinct cards two, four or'six according to the number of 40' i disconnected and incomplete record. As

' sult of any number of movements.

also less liable toerrv and moreover may be movements demanding at regular intervals skilled replacing and valued time consumption attendant thereon, and incidentally a contradistinguished, my device is immediately complete since it records the total re- It is simplified to the extent of having its curve record traced on only one side of a given line.

means which arehereinafter explained and variously combined in the claims, while the annexed drawing and particular description Specification of Iietters Patent.

Stillanother object is the origination. of.

The inventive conceptiorr i s' embodied in Patented Nov. 9, 1915.

thereof together set forth in detail one certain means constituting my invention, the dlsclosed means however, being but ;,one of various mechanical forms in which the prin- Fig. III is a section on A=area of piston in square inchessay 200 square inches.

1rnumber of strokes per minute say PLAN 33,000 or Work pressurexdistance through it travels. 1 horsepower (H. P.):33,000 poundsx 1 foot per minute. y Instantaneous horsepower developed at any point by a piston traveling'in a cylinder equals, instantaneous difference ofpressure between t e pressures, on the two sides of the piston "at that point in pounds per square inch, multiplied by the" area of the piston in square inches (a constant), m'ul-' tiplied by the-instantaneous piston velocity in feet .per minute, divided by thirty-three thousandf Or. 7 I v Inst. difhof P-XAXinst. vel. n t-ne p 33,000 I.

If thereforethe pressure at one end of the cylinder at any given mpment, or when the piston is at any givenxpoint, can be instant 1y indicated with relation to the pres surent the other end and simultaneously the instanta'neorts velocity ofisuch piston, it becomes possible to continuously ascertainthe instantaneous differences of pressure on opposite sides ottlie piston and hence suc-- cessively ',the enstantaneous .measures of horse-power developed. I prefer to accomplish this desired end by the employment along with specific interconnecting mechanism, of the four main parts shown in the (Ira-wing, viz: (1) A generator. (2) A rheostat. (3) A controller. (a) A recorder. These may be individually described as follows:

(1) A magneto, generator or any conoeivable device for delivering electromot'ivc forceprovided only that the latter (or in the case of the magneto chosen for representation in the drawing that the voltage) is at all times by suitable operative connection directly proportioned t0 thevelocity of the ine piston.

2) A; rheostat in which the E. M. Fl. is impressed into a permanent bank of resistance of approximately ten ohms value and arranged or divided into any number of (say 30 or 4.0) equal steps. The end terminals of this rheostat are to. be connected to a generator such as was tersely described in the paragraph just preceding. This connection may or may not include an additional calibrating resistance, as desired.

(3) The controllers (2 in number by preference but not necessity) consist of duplicate face plates, carrying a number of contact points (say 30 or equally spaced and with corresponding points connected in multipleto successive steps of the form of rheostat mentioned -in the paragraph next ahead of this. Each controller involves a sliding contact whose position varieswith the pressure on the corresponding end of the engine cylinder.-

(4) The recorder consists of either an indicating, or a curve-drawing electric voltmeter showing results. This instrumentis .to be connected to the sliding contact of the controllers and by means of a calibrating resistance may be made to read directly 1n horse-power upon-asheet properly graduated.

Proceeding next to an actual description of the drawing as illustrative of-one combination of parts to which the broad principle of my invention may be applied; the cylinin any suitable way are a pair of pressure in- Irrmgs dicators B comprising the closed cylinders b', -inlet valves [2 plungers""b calibrated b and outwardly projecting stems secured to the pin a and is therefore neces-. .sar1ly reciprocated upon the sheaves (301111 pair of cooperative controller plates (Hand 6 These stems b have a link connectio'ntli 7 clearly shown in Figs. II and III. The

arms I) are furthermore insulated intermediately of their ends at 6 for the usual purpose though to be hereinafter particularly stated. It-is thus'manifest that .the free extremities of the arms 12 carrying the wipers I) will rise and fall according as the pressure at the corresponding end of the The contact wipers b constitute one conjunctive agency of the controller mechanism the concluding description of which will soon follow. a

' Located not far removed from the cylinder A is a magneto C which will be assumed to have a substantially constant field whether separately excited or of the permanent magnet type. The maximum voltage to be delivered-may vary between ten and fifteen volts. It comprises an armature c which we will consider as rotating in the direction of the arrow, and two brushes 0 Two sheaves are pivotally mounted in 100 line with each other on opposite sides of the magneto C. 'Operatively stretched about these sheaves c and upon the drum of the armature is a wire 0*. This wire 0* is cidentally with the reciprocation of the engine piston. The movement. of the wire 0 rotates the drum of the armature and in consequence delivers an E. M. F. which resembles a sine curve in value and changes polarity at the end of each stroke of the engine.- The voltage is the while proportioned as the speed of travel of the engine piston. a

Disposed between the controller arms b is the rheostat D comprising the uniform resistance pit to the terminals (l of which the brushes 0" are respectively connected-by means of the connections cl and (P. vThis -resistance is designed to tend to cut the voltage down to zero. Flexible lead wires (Z7? and d, of anyjength suited to the avail able space, connectv each with'a step and ex-' tendrespectively in opposite directions-to a (i best seen in Figs. II and III." These plates are provided with a corresponding engine cylinder increases vor diminishes.

-=number of contact points d and d with t-ahlishing thecontroller in its entirety."

T he arrangement of the plates (7? (1 intermediately of the arms 6 is such that sufiicient sliding pressure is maintained therebetween. Inasmuch as the E. M. F. of the generating magneto is impressed on the rheostat, and because this is of.unifor1n resistance, an approximately uniform drop of potential with each step is produced. In the meantime. since the sliding wiping pointson the arms Z) are adapted to move' up and 'down over the points (1 and d ac:

cording to the pressure communicated from the cylinder, they span a drop ofpotential p according to the effective pressure on the engine piston.

Located at any advantageous place is an electric voltmeter E. This is connected through the agency of wires 6' and c with the two arms I). Vhile the diagrammatic outline of the meter seen in the drawing is assumed to be one of the direct indicating type. it may readily in a manner well. known to the art, be converted or substituted so that a direct reading in horsepower may be. had. This voltmeter or recorder as the case may be measures the value of this last named difference of potential determined by the playing of the sliding contacts over the rheostat. This value of potential is found to be directly proportional to the product of piston velocity and effective pressure on the engine piston. Hence, this value when multiplied by a constant, depending on the dimensions of the engine, establishes the results and when desired indicates the horse-power. This will be found in agreement with the concluding equation appearing on page three.

My device lends itself admirably to the tests demanded in the rolling mill industry Where it is well to .know the maximum instantaneous horse-paper at any given minute. Ihe fluctudtions in generated horse-power during tie successive rolling operations relative to that to be noted during the intervals may be immediately and continuously noted.

The application of my device upon locomotive or marine engines; steam driven machinery generally. including pumps and air compressors; or indeed under any circumstances when a continuous record of the inders, it becomes necessary to duplicate the generator, rheostat and controllers and use a voltmeter with a double winding.

Heretofore devices which merely assisted toward the attainment of the results which my invention completes alone and for itself, made it necessary subsequently to bring together the several preparatory data. Compound or duplex engines required that computations be figured from a plurality of separate charts. The tabulations derived in accordance with my conception designate all the valuesinstantly, precisely and continuously summarized.

My invention beingthus described with 7 sufficient thoroughness, what I desire to secure by Letters Patent and therefore claim specifically, is

1. In a device of the character described, the combination of an engine cylinder, :1 piston movable therein, pressure indicators at opposite ends of said cylinder, afgenerator, mechanism operatively connecting said piston and generator, a rheostat, means operatively connecting said generator and rheostat and controller mechanism operatively connecting said indicators and rheostat and adapted to measure variations in potential for the purpose specified.

2. In a device of thecharacter described, the combination of an engine cylinder, a piston movable therein, pressure indicators at opposite ends of said cylinder, a generator, mechanism operatively connectingfsaid piston and generator, a rheostat, means operatively connecting said generator and rheostat, a controllermechanism operatively connecting said indicators and rheostat, and an electric voltmeter operatively connected with said controller.

3. In a device of the character described,

the combination ofan engine cylinder, a piston movable therein, pressure indicators at opposite ends of said cylinder, a generator, means operatively connecting said piston with the armature of said generator whereby the movement of the former rotates the latter, an electrical measuring instrument including a divided bank of resistance, said instrument being operatively connected with said generator, and controller mechanism adapted to connect different divisions of said resistance with said indicators for the purpose specified.

In a device of the character described, the combination of an engine cylinder, a piston movable therein, pressure indicators at opposite ends of said cylinder and having arms, a magneto, means operatively connect-- ing said piston with the armature of said magneto whereby the movement of the former rotates the latter,'a rheostat having a plurality of equal steps disposed between said indicators, connections between the ter minals of said rheostat and the brushes of Signed by me, this-27th day of January, 7

said magneto, duplicate controller mecha- 1913.

nism movably connecting opposite leads I WALTER H. HOLLSTEIN- from said rheostat with said indicator arms 7 Attested bv 5 respectively, and a vvoltmeter operacively. GEO. mun,

connected with said arms. I H. F. Lmcx. 

